Homemade Beer by The Wizz Materials Needed: 1 Can Malt Extract 1 bottle capper 5 gallon container or bottle 50 beer bottles 2 pounds of corn sugar bottle caps 1 packet beer yeast Air Lock and stopper syphon hose Materials for brewing beer can be obtained from your local Winemakers shop. See Winemaking Supplies or Brewing Supplies in the yellow pages. Place the can of malt extract in hot tap water for about fifteen minutes. This will loosen the thick syrupy malt inside the can and allow for easy pouring. Fill the five gallon jug with water to be used for the beer making. If the water is chlorinated, prepare it twenty four hours in advance by letting it stand with a paper towel, paper napkin or cloth over the opening. This will allow the chlorine to dissipate without permitting anything to enter the water. Take a gallon of this water, put it in a pot, and bring it to a boil. Add the malt extract, and five cups of corn sugar, stirring while adding. Bring the mixture to a boil. Allow it to boil for about ten minutes. Remove one gallon of water from the balance of the five gallons and discard it. Add the boiled mixture (it can now be called wort (pronounced wert)) to the water. Dissolve a package of yeast in a cup of water at about 65-80 degrees. This is called a yeast starter. Let the yeast starter sit for about an hour so that it can begin working, then add it to the wort. Put water in the air lock so that it half fills each of the compartments. Put the air lock into the rubber stopper and place it in the fermentor. Put the fermentore in a cool (80 degrees or lower), dark (out of direct sunlight) place. Fermentation should begin in about four to eight hours. By the end of 12 hours, the mixture should be in full ferment. When the wort is fermenting, the water in the air lock will move to one side and it will be bubbling. As fermentation progresses, the bubbling will slow down and eventually stop. So long as there is gas being produced by the yeast there will be bubbles in the air lock. Depending on the outside temperature, primary fermentation should last about two to four days. When the heavy bubbling has stopped, add the missing gallon of water and replace the air lock. Let the mixture stay in the fermentor for a total of seven days, even if fermentation stopped after two days. Find a recepticle that will hold five gallons. A glass or plastic water jug will be perfect. A jug can be obtained from the supermarket by paying the deposit and returning the bottle when finished. Place the cubetainer with the beer on a table a few hours before you will be ready to do the bottling so that if the sediment is disturbed it will be able to settle to the bottom before proceeding to the next step. With the enclosed tubing, syphon the beer from the five gallon cubetainer to the bottle or other reciever. Try to keep as much of the sediment from coming over as possible, but do not get too fanatical about it. Some of the sediment is going to come over, so don't worry about it. We will take care of it in the next steps. The beer is still cloudy and will remain so even while bottling, it clears in the bottle. Withdraw some of the new beer, about a quart will do, and to it add one level cup of priming sugar. This added corn sugar will begin a limited fermentation in the bottle and produce the natural carbonation. The beer and sugar mixture can be heated to insure complete dissolving of the priming sugar. Add the priming solution to the main mixture. An easy way to make sure that the priming sugar is completely dispersed throughout the beer is to insert the racking tube into the beer and blow into it. The bubbles will thoroughly mix the beer and sugar. Bottle your beer. Place the bottled beer in a cool place (80 degrees or below) and let it stand for two weeks. After two weeks the beer can be opened and enjoyed. For the novice brewer, this is the long awaited grand opening. Enjoy. The first brews go fast and are usually enjoyed all around. As one gains experience in brewing they learn that two weeks aging in the bottle is the bare minimum. The longer the beer is aged (up to about three months) the better it gets. That holds especially true for the dark beer. To check that out, put away a "six pack" of your first brew to age for several months. The difference will be startling. For more information on Brewing or Winemaking contact: SOMETHING'S BREWING 6660 SUNSET STRIP SUNRISE FLORIDA, 33313 305-742-3535 or see WINEMAKERS SUPPLIES in the yellow pages.